What is the difference between the commands adduser
and useradd
on Ubuntu?
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18Same question on Super User and on Server Fault – ændrük Sep 15 '13 at 20:37
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6and also on Unix stackexchange (quite detailed answer) – xealits Oct 11 '16 at 22:17
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1and it is and stays a good, valid question. The issue is not people asking it in respective contexts, it is that this question needs to be asked at all. – foo Dec 19 '18 at 15:36
useradd
is native binary compiled with the system. But,adduser
is a perl script which usesuseradd
binary in back-end.
adduser
is more user friendly and interactive than its back-enduseradd
. There's no difference in features provided.
Source: What's the difference between “adduser” and “useradd”?
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75
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13The implimentation isn't that interesting, the semantics are. Like
adduser(8)
is more userfriendly and creates and set up a user by default the way you expect. Anduseradd(8)
only do what you ask, so do you want a home directory created, you have to tell it to create it for you. – Anders Sep 22 '14 at 14:14 -
33I have to google this every time... How can I help myself remember which is which? – Quentin Skousen Jan 22 '16 at 20:10
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13@kkhugs to me "adduser" feels the most intuitive because it's a command that sounds like english, while the other does not, semantically. If you remember it as the "most intuitive" of the two, you can also try to remember it as the preferred/easier one. – pzkpfw May 1 '16 at 10:41
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5
Always use adduser
(and deluser
when deleting users) when you're creating new users from the command line. (If you're writing a script, especially if you aim for portability, you might want to use the lowlevel utilities instead – and adduser
/deluser
might not be available on all distros, e.g. on SuSE.)
The useradd
, userdel
and usermod
commands are lowlevel utilities which are there for historical reasons, while adduser/deluser
Do The Right Thing™. (I remember which to use by thinking that user*
comes after adduser/deluser
in the alphabet, and therefore is "worse".)
According to the respective manpages (on Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin, i.e. a Debian derivative system).
Manpage for adduser
says:
(Emphasis added.)
adduser
andaddgroup
add users and groups to the system according to command line options and configuration information in/etc/adduser.conf
. They are friendlier front ends to the low level tools likeuseradd
,groupadd
andusermod
programs, by default choosing Debian policy conformant UID and GID values, creating a home directory with skeletal configuration, running a custom script, and other features.adduser
andaddgroup
can be run in one of five modes:
Manpage for useradd
says:
useradd
is a low level utility for adding users. On Debian, administrators should usually useadduser(8)
instead.
See also: What's the difference between “adduser” and “useradd”? (on SuperUser)
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6I never can remember which one, so this is my stupid mnemonic if it helps anyone :) "user" rhymes with "loser", and "loser" comes last. Thus: adduser, deluser. – Mads Skjern Mar 13 '15 at 12:27
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34I actually disagree on "Always user
adduser
": For automated scripts I'd preferuseradd
because it's always there, non-interactive, and not distro-specific. – Wernight Apr 15 '15 at 10:47 -
2
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1@cst1992 You're right, I've edited the answer to reflect this. Curiously enough, when I tried
locate adduser
on a SuSE 11 system at work I found that there was anadduser
manpage, but no binary (and neither adeluser
manpage nor a command). – zrajm May 24 '16 at 15:40 -
4
adduser
: add user with full profile and info (pass, quota, permission, etc.)
useradd
: add user with his name only (if you want to add a temp user with only a name,other info not required)
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1+1 and Welcome! I up voted the person who was incapable of explaining their previous down vote. Keep it up! Good programmers always rise to the top - (and don't down vote without an explanation). :) – Ricalsin Aug 9 '14 at 2:38
Another couple of differences, that lead to specific scenarios where useradd might be preferable.
In some newer distros, including Ubuntu 14.4, adduser will prompt for information such as password and "gecos" (data for the finger command). This means it can be less suitable for calling from a script (credit: already mentioned in a comment by Wernight).
The prompts can be suppressed by passing null arguments:
adduser --disabled-password --gecos "" USER
useradd
allows you to pass multiple additional groups to add a user to by means of the-G
option.adduser
seems to require that you call the command once for each group to add.
adduser
is friendlier in that it sets up the account's home folders and other settings (e.g. automatically loading system stats and notifications on login), whereas useradd
just creates the user.
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4Wrong. useradd can create home directory with -m, set password with -p, create skeleton files with -k, and add user to group(s) with -G. – ychaouche Feb 21 '18 at 11:38
Basic difference is "adduser" will create home directory & add skeleton files to that directory where "useradd" wont create any home directory & skeleton files !
adduser try :
Adding user `try' ...
Adding new group `try' (1001) ...
Adding new user `try' (1001) with group `try' ...
Creating home directory `/home/try' ...
Copying files from `/etc/skel' ...
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully
Changing the user information for try
Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
Full Name []:
Room Number []:
Work Phone []:
Home Phone []:
Other []:
Is the information correct? [Y/n] y
useradd try1 :
# ll /home/
total 20
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Oct 26 15:52 ./
drwxr-xr-x 22 root root 4096 Oct 26 15:47 ../
drwx------ 8 ashishk ashishk 4096 Oct 26 15:50 ashishk/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Oct 14 13:02 .ecryptfs/
drwxr-xr-x 2 try try 4096 Oct 26 15:52 try/
root@chef-workstation:/home/ashishk#
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1
The biggest different between using adduser
and useradd
is:
- With
adduser
command, the home folder for the user will be created as default. - With
useradd
command, there is no home folder for the user.
So I suggest you to use adduser
instead of using useradd
.
I'll also point out that adduser
does not always have the -M
option and also does not respect the --system
flag which specifically says:
Note that useradd will not create a home directory for such an user, regardless of the default setting in /etc/login.defs (CREATE_HOME). You have to specify the -m options if you want a home directory for a system account to be created.
If you're trying to create a system user without a home directory then use useradd --system -M
.